THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
Art. XV.—On the Hill Canton
of Salar—the most Easterly Settlement
of the Turk Race. By Robert B. Shaw.
Although the Chinese are now
rolling back the tide of Muslim rebellion which
had invaded their North-Western Provinces
(exercising frightful barbarities on the towns
they have successively retaken), yet some
interest still attaches to the little Hill Canton
of Salar, which appears to have formed the
nucleus of the rebellion and the chief stronghold
of Islam in Western China. Dim rumors of its
existence had reached Europe, but it had been
supposed to be one of the towns of the Tunganis,
or Chinese Muslim, who were then in insurrection
against the Imperial Government. Col.
Prschewalsky, the Russian traveler, who passed
through Western China during the last throes of
the rebellion, just mentions Salar, which,
however, he did not visit. I was able to learn
something about the district and its inhabitants
from some Salar men who were living in Yarkand
during my last stay there, and it seems to be a
curious country with a curious people.
To
begin with the latter, the Salari form the most
easterly settlement of the Turk race of which we
have any knowledge. Isolated among Chinese and
Mongolians, they have a tradition that their
ancestors came from Rum or Turkey. The story is
as follows. Their spiritual guide or religious
teacher, some 700 years ago, sent them forth on a
pilgrimage, giving them a sample of earth, with
instructions to wander until they Vol. x. — [new
Series.] 21
should reach some country
whose soil should weigh the same, measure for
measure, as the sample which they bore with them.
From land to land they roamed, weighing the earth
from place to place, till they came by way of Tibet
to Salarn4s (Lower Salar). Here the earth
was found to come nearer in weight to their
sample than it had been anywhere else. Still it
differed somewhat. They were preparing to march
further when it was discovered that some of their
camels, laden with religious books, had strayed.
In search of them they penetrated into the hill
country which lay at the side of their road. Here
their task received its accomplishment. They
weighed the soil and found it exactly balanced an
equal measure of that which had been given to
them by their spiritual teacher. Here, therefore,
they rested from their travel, and finding the
hills uninhabited, they formed a settlement, to
which they gave the name of Salar-ges or
Upper Salar, though to what language the affix
belongs I do not know.
Whatever may be their real
history, they are a people of Turki race from
their appearance, and speak a language differing
but slightly from the Turki of Kashghar. They
have but little hair on their faces, but are
ruddy and comparatively fair in countenance,
differing much in this respect from the
yellow-skinned Mongol Kalmaks and from the
Chinese. It is true I only saw two or three of
their number, but this is the judgment which I
formed from them.
The climate of their country
differs from its surroundings as much as the
people. As the latter are a Turki tribe alone
amongst Mongolians and Chinese, so the district
inhabited by them forms part of a moist Alpine
region covered with forest, projecting out into
the midst of the most barren wildernesses in the
world. With the great desert of Mongolia on the
North stretching far up to Siberia, and the
equally rainless but elevated region of Tibet on
the South West, the district we are treating of
forms the completest contrast. It is here that
the great Hoang-Ho or Yellow River, coming from
its sources in Tibet, enters China through a vast
portal of mountains which, leaving on one side
the upper course of the river, stretch out their
parallel ranges to the Westward; as one may
sometimes see, in the approach to some old hall,
the grand avenue deserted and grass grown, and
the road curving round from outside it come in
between the trees. So also the Yellow River
enters sideways from the South-West, while the
great plain between the mountain ranges extends
westward, covered with rich grazing grounds, and
occupied in part by the great Lake of Koko-N6r,
the so-called Blue Sea of the Chinese and
Mongols.
Just within the portal, where
the river runs in a deep valley between its
mountain walls, high up on the right or southern
bank, is the district of Salar. It is watered by
mountain streams, from which canals are diverted
for irrigation, although the cultivation chiefly
depends upon the periodical rains. The Salari
reckon their rainy season to last for six months,
viz. from June to November inclusive, during part
of which time the rain is intermittent, being
broken by intervals of fine weather. The rainfall
is said to be very severe and heavy, so as to be
injurious to the fields and crops, though, owing
to the declivities, the soil dries up at once on
its ceasing. On the skirts of the mountains,
however, where there is no irrigation available,
and where probably the rain is less heavy, it is
of great benefit to the crops which thus depend
on it.
There are heavy falls of snow
in December, January and February, which melts
away in March from the neighborhood of the
villages, but remains on the tops of the
mountains till April, after which no snow is
visible excepting on the mountains north of the
river, in the district of Sining, on which
the snow remains throughout the year. Thus about Salar
the southern range would seem to have sunk to the
level of some eight or ten thousand feet above
the sea.
The temperature of Salar is
said to be about the same in winter as that of
Yarkand, while the summers are somewhat cooler.
Its productions will give an idea of the climate.
The crops chiefly grown are wheat, barley, peas,
millet, linseed, etc. There is no Indian-corn
grown (or very little) nor rice. The latter is
imported from the low countries. Wheat and barley
are sown in April and reaped in August. By
October, everything is out of the ground. The
principal trees are poplar, willow, elm, walnut,
apple, pear, apricot and peach. The mountains
above Salar are covered with forests of fir trees
; at least so I understand from the description
of my informant (there being no word in Turki for
the fir genus). He describes the trees as
being straight and tall, with leaves rough, thin
and wiry, which are always green throughout the
year. The people of the mountains take these
trees by means of the river down to the lower
countries, where they are used for building
purposes. When they cut this tree, a pleasant
smell comes from it.
One might perhaps be inclined
to feel doubts regarding the existence of such a
forest region, with periodical rains, in the
midst of a part of Asia noted for its rainless
character and barrenness, if Col. Prschewalsky,
the Russian traveler who lately visited the
Koko-N6r (Lake) to the west of it, had not
recorded this phenomenon with regard to the
mountainous tract on the north of the Yellow
River in Western Kansu, which is a part of the
same region. It is possible that the rain-clouds
from the China Seas are here led along to the
westward by the mountain chains running in that
direction into the desert, and precipitated in
rain on their flanks by the cold atmosphere of
the highlands, while the heated air rising from
the plains in summer (the season of the rains)
opposes an obstacle to this precipitation over
the tracts to the northward, and the vast belt of
mountains which surrounds Tibet acts as a
protection in that quarter. The name of the desert
of Mongolia, Gobi, i.e. the Empty, shows
sufficiently its character.
It would seem that, before
the rebellion, the Chinese administration of the
district of Salar was similar to that of their
other foreign possessions; that is, was left
entirely in the hands of native chiefs as to
details, while a general supervision was
exercised by an Amban or Resident supported by
troops. Under him were two native Muslim chiefs
ruling the two divisions of the canton. The title
of the one was Khantus and of the other Mahtus,
and, on the death of the incumbent, the
dignity was handed on to some member of his
family or to some other native Muslim. In the
trial of cases, the Kazis, or religious
magistrates, sat as assessors with these native
Governors, who alone had the power of inflicting
punishment. The chief crimes of the country seem
to have been caused by village quarrels followed
by vendetta, as among the Afghans. Many
lives are thus lost, for which, if the injured
side could not obtain revenge in kind, they
appealed to the native Governors or even finally
to the Chinese Amban. These endeavored to make up
the quarrels by soft words or by adjudging a
money compensation to the aggrieved party,
failing which, life for life was taken. It was
only on such occasions, or when specially
appealed to, that the Chinese Resident interfered
in the administration of the canton. This seems
to have been universally the character of Chinese
rule over foreign dependencies. Both in Tibet and
in the formerly dependent provinces of Eastern
Turkistan and Dzungaria, the internal government
was left entirely in the hands of natives, who
were supported, even in misrule, by the power of
the Chinese arms.
The taxation of Salar was
very light. Each petty landholder paid a charak
(about 16 lbs.) of grain yearly. This grain
was consumed by the Government troops on the
spot, and no other taxes were imposed on the
natives.
I
speak in the past tense because my information
refers to the state of affairs before the late
rebellion, of which Salar was one of the
head-quarters, though it embraced also the large
Muhammadan Chinese population of the neighboring
provinces. Regarding the present state of affairs
I have no exact information; for, though it is
known that the active rebellion has been stamped
out by massacres of whole towns and by the
migration westward of large numbers of Tunganis
or Chinese Muslim, yet it is not ascertained that
even up to this day the Imperial army has
succeeded in storming the mountain fastnesses of Salar
or subjecting its inhabitants to Chinese rule
again.
Their numbers are said to be
about 40,000, and they live in villages
consisting of scattered farmhouses each on its
own land. Groups of four or five villages each
are administered by local chiefs called " Imak,"
who again are subordinate to the two
Governors, above mentioned, respectively. The
Chinese call the canton Sa-Hoiza and its
people Sala-Hoiza. The second word of the
two compounds seems to be that applied by the
Chinese to Muhammedans generally, which is stated
to be "Hoei-Hoei" or "Hoei-ze."
The Salari know themselves as Mumin or
" the Faithful," an Arabic word.
Such are the people who
formed one of the nuclei of the great Muslim
rebellion. I will now say a few words regarding
their local position in relation to the other
tribes of that region. Locally they are situated
in the Chinese North-Western Province of Kansu,
which, during the former period of extension of
the Chinese rule, is stated by my informants to
have comprised within its jurisdiction all the
foreign dependencies in the west as far as
Kashghar and Yarkand. For this purpose the
Province was divided into two parts, one inside
the Great Wall of China, viz. Kansu proper, the
other beyond the Wall, where all the inhabitants
were considered outer barbarians.
The city of Lan-chu, the
capital of this great province, lies some
distance to the East of Salar. Between the two
lies the Chinese town of Ho-chau (pronounced
by my informant Kho-du or Kho-chu)} This
town has sometimes been identified with Salar, and
in point of position they are in fact very near
to one another. If from the city of Lan-chu, as a
centre, two radii be drawn, one westward and the
other north-westward, these will roughly
represent, one, the upper course of the Yellow
River (on whose south bank is Salar); the other,
the great western road which connects China with
the provinces of Turkistan. At a certain distance
along this road it is crossed by the celebrated
Great Wall (called Wan-li Chuan (Chang) Chin
(Chang) or " the Wall of Ten-thousand M"),
as by the circumference of a great wheel. The
road goes through the Wall by a guarded gateway
called in the local Chinese dialect Jayi-Gwan (Kia
yu kwan). All the
1
The name of the Yellow River, or Hoang-ho, is
pronounced by him Khwangkho, and Pekin fiytn.
region outside this Gate, as
far as the Altai Mountains, the Pamir and the
back of the Himalaya Mountains, is called by the
Chinese ShS-k'hoyi (Si-kou-wei), which is
said to mean " Western (region) outside of
mouth," by mouth meaning the gateway
above mentioned, and is divided by them into a
northern and a southern circuit (Pi-lu and
Nan-lu).
Inside the triangle formed by
the Great Wall, the western road, and the Yellow
River, lay the chief scene of the Muslim
rebellion, though the rebels carried their
ravages at times into other regions. They have
since been put down with the utmost severity, and
the massacre of 30,000 Muslim, men, women and
children, at Suchau, near the Great Gate, and of
large numbers in other towns, recall the
barbarities of Genghis Khan. All the associations
of these places, however, are not those of blood
and massacre, for Sining, a town nearly
opposite Salar on the north of the Yellow River,
has always enjoyed a considerable commercial
celebrity. Under the name of Seling or Zilin, it
is well known in the markets of Western Tibet,
and my informant gave me a detailed list of the
trade carried on through it.
Sining seems to be the entrepot
of trade between Mongolia and China on the
north-east and the various tribes of Tibeton the
south-west. A considerable trade is carried on
with Lhasa, the capital of the Grand Lama of
Tibet, by means of official or Government
caravans (as is also the case between Lhasa and
Ladak), and traders from Kashmir, even, come via
Lhasa to Sining and reside there. The nearer
neighbours of Sining and Salar, occupying the
country north of Tibet, are various partly
independent tribes, among whom my informant
mentioned the Kirghiz, though their presence so
far to the south-east is very doubtful.
One of the other tribes,
named Daza (Ta-tze), seem to be Mongols,
probably forming the most southerly extension of
that race. They are nomads and Buddhist by
religion, and wear long pig-tails.
The next race is called Si-fan.
They are pastoral nomads and robbers, which
two professions often go together. They are
called by the local Chinese Chuan Rung or
"Dog-men." These are the people whom
Col. Prschewalsky calls Tangutana (on what local
authority does not appear). From the specimens of
their language recorded by him, as well as those
given by my informant, it would seem that they
belong to the Tibetan race. He conversed in my
presence in the Si-fan tongue with a Tibetan of
Ladak, who understood him, though with some
difficulty.
My
informant mentioned three other tribes who speak
the same language and are therefore Tibetans, and
who are settled people living by agriculture. One
of them, called Khun-mo, practice
polyandry, and wear their hair long but cut
across the forehead, while the other two, named
respectively Kopa and Turun, wear
pig-tails. These latter are subject to the
authority of the Dalai Lama, and carry us up to
the borders of Lhasa or Great Tibet.
The trade of all these people
and of the countries beyond them concentrates at
Sining, whence it is dispersed again. From Tibetcome
annual caravans, sent by the Grand Lama, which
take about two months on the journey. Almost all
the trade between the two places is carried on by
these trade-agents of the Lama. It is not usual
for Sining merchants to go to Tibet, as this
would be at variance with the system of the Lama
Government in its intercourse with the West. Save
the official agents, few people engage in the
trade between Lhasa and Ladak; whether it be that
they are discouraged from doing so except in a
few favored instances, or else that the length
and costliness of the journey make it hard for
private individuals to compete with the
Government caravans from both sides which obtain
their carriage free. This matter is settled by
treaty as well as by old custom; and the Maharaja
of Kashmir, our feudatory, as successor to the
rights of the old Kings of Ladak, is entitled to
send a caravan every third year to Lhasa, the
goods being transported by unpaid labor, in
return for similar privileges conferred on the
yearly Lhasa caravan.
To
return to Sining, the relations between the
townspeople and their nomad neighbours, the
Si-fan, present an example of what has been
called " dumb-trading," but which might
more correctly be styled
"blind-bargaining." The Si-fans bring
the goods they have for sale, chiefly skins and
furs of animals, done up in sacks, of which they
do not exhibit the contents till a bargain is
struck. The townspeople go out to meet them, and
show them what they will give in exchange. If
this is considered sufficient, the exchange is
affected; but if not, the Si-fans hold off till
more is offered by the same or by another trader.
It is only when he has given up his own goods
that the purchaser is able to see what it is that
he has bought.
It
is said to be impossible for the Sining people to
go into the Si-fan country to trade, as the
nomads would plunder them as soon as they set
foot in it. The only people with whom the latter
are on terms of reciprocal friendship are the
Muslims of Salar, first described, and who are
the only merchants who can visit the Si-fans in
their own tents. This friendship has perhaps
given rise to Col. Prschewalsky apparent
identification of the two people in the
nomenclature which he applies to them. The Si-fan
nomads he calls Tangutans, and the Salari Black
Tangutans. But, as from their language it would
appear that the former are Tibetans, and the
latter Turks, there must be some mistake in this.
From the Ladak side we obtain
information regarding these regions from another
aspect. The Lhasa merchants state that their
traders go to the Chinese town of Sining, which
they call Seling or Zilin (thus confirming the
identification suggested by Col. Yule).1 The
caravans, they say, are accompanied by a guard to
protect them en route from the attacks of
the Sok-po nomads. These must be the same
as the Si-fans or Tangutans of Col. Prschewalsky.
Besides these there are said to be other Sok-po
of the tribes called Kalka and Torgud. These
names are well known as those of Mongol tribes,
and therefore the name Sok-po is shown not to be
an ethnic distinction. The invasion of Tibet by
Geldan Tsining, King of the Zungar Kalmaks (Mongo
1 My lamented friend, Col. T.
G. Montgomerie, pointed out the identity of
Siling or Jiling (as Pundit Nain Singh called it)
with Sining-fu, in his Report on Trans-Himalayan
explorations during 1868.—H. Y.), is
ascribed to the Sok-po in the Tibetan annals of
the Kings of Ladak in my possession.
While considering the tribes
which occupy the Eastern part of the great
unknown land that stretches along the north of
Tibet, it is not perhaps out of place to give a
few items of information regarding its more
Western tracts, which I obtained from some Ladaki
Tibetans who go on trading expeditions each year.
From the gold-producing
district of T'hok-Jalung north of the Upper
Indus, now well known through the labors of Col.
Montgomerie's Pandits, my informants state that
they travel northwards for four days of fast
travelling to get to a place called Jing-Chen
Jing-Chun, where a tribe of so-called Kergifa live
in fifty or sixty tents, under their chief,
Skarma-Angdu. The name of the tribe is
interesting in connection with the statement
mentioned above of the Kirghiz being one
of the tribes haunting the deserts west of
Sining. These Khirghiz, however, are Buddhists.
They own many sheep (of the Tibetan breed) and
yaks ; they dress like the Lhasa people, and wear
their hair loose but cut across the forehead, as
was mentioned by my Salari informants in the case
of the Khunmo tribe. The women wear their
hair also loose, with rough turquoises in it, and
my informants imitated the motion with which they
continually toss their heads to shake the hair
aside from their faces. These people are robbers
of travelers, excepting such as make arrangements
for protection with their chief. They pay a small
tribute to the district Governor of Gartok, as
rent for the pastures which they occupy. In
winter they migrate further to the north. In
their summer quarters there is a salt lake with
no outlet, fed by streams of sweet water.
From this tribe's summer
quarters a two or three days' journey north by
east leads to Kirthé, the abode of a tribe more
barbarous than the Khirghiz. Each man wears two
swords and carries a lance and a gun. They are
very murderous. No traders go to them without
first obtaining security and a pass from their
Chief, Makhpon Namgyal. They number some 200
tents.
In
another direction to the north of the Khirghiz,
but slightly more to the westward than the last,
three days' fast riding takes one to Hordum,1where
are some thirty tents. Here there are better
people under a chief named Hor-pale. They dress
like Yarkandi and own dumba sheep (the
broadtailed kind bred in Turkistan). They wear no
pig-tails, but their hair is cut across the
forehead. Their northernmost grazing grounds
adjoin those of the people of Khoten in Eastern
Turkistan. To these more northern grounds they go
in winter, and find them warmer than their
southern haunts. This would indicate that they
must be beyond the axis of greatest elevation,
and that the ground gets lower to the northward.
Their summer quarters are on the high plateau,
for they have lakes without outlets fed by
streams of fresh water. They pay tribute to no
one. They profess to be Buddhists, but they have
no lamas and their religion is very doubtful.
They eat no vegetable food, being unable to
obtain any, and they feed their horses in winter
on meat. This is a custom mentioned by Mirza
Ha'idar in the sixteenth century as prevailing in
Tibet generally. Their horses are large compared
with the ponies of Tibet, and very active. They
gallop up and down the steepest mountain sides,
and are reported to attack travelers by charging
down on them from all sides at a given signal,
with lances couched, and with these they are said
to lift and carry off the property of their
victims without alighting, if no resistance is
offered. If the travelers show fight, they are
overpowered, tied up hands and feet, and left
thus in the desert. All these tribes are said to
talk the Tibetan language but with slight
differences.
The Tibetan traders only
visit them in their summer or more southern
quarters. They are said to be sometimes attacked
themselves by the Chokchu Kaba,2 a more powerful
tribe living further north but regarding whom I
could obtain no information.
It
is a curious circumstance, showing the insecurity
of the country beyond the borders of Ladak, that
the traders who go thence to the T'hok-Jalung
gold-fields and beyond, leave any ponies they may
have, at the last Ladak village, and proceed with
the hardy donkeys of the country only. This they
do in order to avoid tempting the robbers (who
are known under the general name of Chak-pa).
These people would steal their horses, but
donkeys are not sufficiently swift to enable them
to go off rapidly, and they will not be troubled
to rob the traders of their goods unless they can
at the same time supply themselves with beasts to
carry them away on.
In
conclusion, I may mention that I have compared
the specimens of the so-called Sok-po language of
Northern Tibet, by Mr. Brian Hodgson, with the
list of Kalmak words, given by Dr. Bellew in the
Report of the Mission to Yarkand under Sir T. D.
Forsyth, K. C. S. I. Allowing for the slight
differences in the way in which different
inquirers catch the sounds of an unknown dialect,
and represent it in Roman characters, and also
for the probability of the same thing having more
than one word to express it, the general
agreement is, I think, quite sufficient to show
that they are both the same language. This
confirms the identification of the Sok-po
(proper) of Tibetan informants, with the Kalmaks
of Muslim (Turk) writers. But the former term
seems to be extended, as mentioned above, to the
Si-fan nomads, who are Tibetans by language.
Probably the term is used, like that of Scythian
by classical writers, to include many nomad
tribes of different races.
Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain
& Ireland, Volume 10
Author
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Publisher
Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic
Society, 1878